1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile information terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile information terminal having command buttons and an operating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A dummy terminal has been generally used for retrieving text-oriented information. The development of communication systems and an increase in information providing services has led to the development of terminal emulators that emulate terminals by using software. The terminal emulator currently retrieves text-oriented information, and has been widely used in various environments ranging from mobile information terminals, personal computers and main frame computers. Most emulators have adopted pointing devices such as a pen, a mouse, or the like.
A pointing device must be adopted for information retrieval particularly when a physical keyboard is not available, as in a mobile information terminal. For example, in a mobile information terminal such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a user inputs a retrieval command using a pen. In this case, the internal configuration of the mobile information terminal is designed to facilitate input of commands via the pen. However, a keyboard is required to connect external application programs via on-line communications, and in particular, to use text-oriented information retrieval services.
The mobile information terminal adopts a software keyboard to input retrieval commands instead of a physical keyboard, because its input device is limited in size. However, a software keyboard typically occupies a part of a screen, which impedes the display of the entire amount of retrieved data on one screen. Accordingly, an operator is required to execute special operations, such as scrolling up or down, in order to view undisplayed portions of the entire amount of retrieved data.